Fly Me to the Moon 7.24.14

We love the idea of going to the moon, seeing the stars sparkle in the sky, and celebrating all the marvelous and magical things that happen in the evenings (lightening bugs…although they have them in Colorado they don’t glow here…or so the internet has led me to believe). Either way, there is something magical about the evening when the starts are glistening, and the moon is bright, and we wanted to celebrate that with our residents…and the fact that this is the month that we celebrate first landing on the moon so many years ago.

One might question how an event like this should be celebrated, and we’re happy to tell you that we’ve figured it out.  First, and most importantly, MOON PIES must be consumed, because they’re delightful, they have the word “moon” in their name, and lastly they bring us to a calmer time, when the world was less busy with electronics, and gadgets that never put our minds to rest, and we wanted to channel that time in history. Next, we made a rocket ship cut out, and took cheesy pictures (because frankly, why wouldn’t we!) And some people associate cheese to look like the moon, so taking cheesy pictures isn’t too far a stretch (is it?) We played some moon games (like mounds of foil, which we referred to as moon rocks and trying to get it in the rocket ship windows)…then we also had a musician who played moon music (or at least that’s how we’re going to refer to it this time, because it fits our theme). Either way, we had fun because we believe that we can make things fun and with that mindset, we can! Come see the Juniper Difference!

Superhero Slurpee Salute Take 2 7.11.14

Last year we tried out hosting a Superhero Slurpee Salute…and it was a huge success; so, we thought, let’s do it again! Frankly,  any excuse to celebrate our local superheroes and dress up like one is a great idea for an event.

We invited our local EMT’s, Police Department, and Fire Department to say thank you for all of the work they do. For those of you who have not worked with any of these departments, they are truly amazing, and we’re really thankful to have such wonderful and caring professionals in this area. So, a couple of times a year, we try to host events as a thank you to them for all the work they do and the help they provide to us here at the community. We broke out the grills and made all our favorite BBQ fixings, along with watermelon and popsicles on the side; we had an excellent afternoon party…oh, and did I forget to mention that we had slurpees? We did, and they were amazing to drink on such a hot day!

Please join us in October when we host our local heroes for a Chili Cook-off in which they decide the winners!

Father’s Day with our Dads and Donuts 6/7/14

I have a pre-conceived idea of what Father’s Day is all about. As a kid I never celebrated this holiday, and honestly thought it was something that churches developed. I remember that for Mother’s Day, the ladies got flowers (which as a kid I thought was terribly boring…and let’s be honest, I probably still wouldn’t be that excited to get a geranium…there’s nothing special about that). But Father’s Day, on the other hand, is when they broke out the chocolate candy bars and gave them to all of the guys…and that hands down was the best, no competition. So in the spirit of that idea, we really wanted to celebrate the fathers in our community (and, of course, any who would be willing to come celebrate that status were welcome too!). So how best do we do that…well with candy bars setting the tone, and the concept of what my weekends looked like as a child (I’ll be honest, my mom went shopping with my sister and I would stay home with my brother and dad). Oddly enough, I can say that my dad was never a morning person, so that’s why our Dads and Donuts event started at 10AM…although frankly getting up and getting somewhere by 10AM on the weekend might have been a stretch…it still was later as opposed to being too early. So we broke out all of the breakfast foods, that frankly Dad’s love…Donuts, Eggs, Bacon, Sausages…a relaxed morning hanging out in the Courtyard…this is the substance of which all Saturday mornings should consist of for our dads, our heroes…the people who are so incredibly laid back in their approach to life, enjoy a relaxing day. Happy Father’s Day Dads!

Excellence in Care Celebration 6.5.14

We know…we already posted on this…but again we want to take a few minutes to talk about this momentous occasion and how we celebrated it with our staff, vendors, and family because we think it’s a pretty big deal!

So how do you emphasize how incredibly proud of your staff that you are…well, you have a big party with presents and a food truck (because food trucks are AWESOME!). So we got our local ice cream store to come over and park in our circle drive to celebrate our accomplishments (and have some ice cream…because that’s what hot days are for). Needless to say this was a huge success with vendors, staff, and families alike…let us know what you think…and we of course are always open to new suggestions on how to celebrate accomplishments such as these, so let us know what we should do next!

Be Boppin’ Around Town with 50’s Flare

Every year in March we put on a good ol’ fashioned sock hop. The staff here gets decked out in our car hop apparel and we dance through the afternoon until we serve burgers, fries, and shakes. Of course, as a special treat, we also have a cotton candy machine (because cotton candy is the best, and if we can find a reason to make it for an event, we will!)

What do we do during our sock hop…well, that’s a good question, because there are a variety of things to do. Perhaps a visit to the sweet shop would be on the list of must do’s…as we have someone spinning up old fashioned shakes. In Town Hall, we can be found dancing around to the favorite songs from the 50’s, like be-bop-a-lula. While some of us actually know the steps to dances from the 50’s, others of us just jump around enthusiastically and consider that dancing (at least that can be said and is true of this writer). Over in the gym, you will find that we’ve converted the area into a backdrop for 50’s style pictures, props are there as well as costumes, including wigs that can be used to really make the pictures seem more authentic (or at the very least…much more fun). And, of course, outside in the courtyard is where we can be found spinning cotton candy.

This is always a really fun event for everyone around. Check out our pictures, and feel free to join us for any of our fun-filled events!

Tea House Celebration in Honor of Mom’s

The weekend of Mother’s Day is always a special event. We at Juniper like to think that our Mothers appreciate the type of setting that you would traditionally find in a tea house. The style is a little bit eclectic, the food is delicate, yet simple.

So, this year, we, again, hosted our famous Mother’s Day Tea event to celebrate the ladies in our lives who have helped develop us into the wonderful people that we are today.  Doily Banners were hung to honor mom, and we all broke out our tablecloths and vintage hankies to decorate the tables in true traditional tea house style.

Our cooks prepared wonderful pastries and finger sandwiches that were quickly snatched up, and we enjoyed a variety of drinks (not just tea).

Please make sure to visit us for any of our wonderful upcoming events. We love to have people join with us for any of our festivities!

Alzheimer’s Foundation of America Excellence in Care Award

Juniper Village at Louisville recently went through the survey process to re-qualify for the Excellence in Care Award through the Alzheimer’s Foundation of America. We are excited to announce that we were able to re-qualify for this prestigious award!

The Excellence in Care Award is an honor as there aren't that many communities nation-wide who have qualified and passed this rigorous test. There are a number of criteria that is involved in qualifying for this award. Staff involvement and interactions with residents in the community is a large piece, as is ongoing training of staff and available activities for residents living in our community.

Juniper Village at Louisville is committed to providing the best care possible for our residents. We have high standards and really believe in nurturing the spirit of life in each individual. We have historically had an excellent record with our state surveys and continue to strive for improvement in every area because to us it’s more than just a job, it’s our livelihood.

Please join us as we celebrate this tremendous honor on June 5th at 2PM...we don’t know how we’re going to celebrate, but we do know that we are going to celebrate big with the staff and residents of our community; we are exceptionally proud of their work and we love our residents!

Cheese It Up with the Cheesiest Cheese Balls In Town!

Somewhere in our understanding of what is important in our work here at Juniper Village at Louisville, we may have stretched the boundary of importance to include being cheesy and making sure that everyone has a good time.

Sometimes when we’re coming up with ideas for celebrating at our community, we specifically aim to achieve this goal. Fortunately, there are national days of celebration; such as, Cheese Ball Day that really enable us to do this type of an event rather easily (thank goodness that somebody, somewhere thought this should be a day to celebrate cheese balls, because we here at Juniper are on top of making this one of the most amazing days ever!)

So, with this in mind, we set out to have a cheesy day (which included cheesy attire…check out the picture of some of the leadership team members…kitty leggings, St. Patrick’s Day cupcakes a full month later, sequin skirts, tulle skirts…florescent colors…if that is not the epitome of cheesy, then we don’t want to know what is!) We also decided to tell cheesy jokes (not necessarily just about cheese…my personal favorite is: What did the Mama Tomato say to the baby tomatoes…catch up, catch up!) Then, we played a cheesy game with cheese balls (which is also a personal favorite). We had the staff sit with a shower cap on, which then had shaving cream placed on top of it while the residents threw cheese balls, with the aim of getting them in the shaving cream and sticking…needless to say, fun was had by everyone!

Please join us for any of our upcoming cheesy events, where we guarantee that fun will be had! Our next event is our Mother’s Day Tea on May 10 at 10:30 a.m.

Easter Brunch and Egg Hunting

We love being able to celebrate with our residents and families. This is a traditional celebration in which Brunch is the central focus (because Brunch is amazing, and it really should be added as a mandatory fourth meal to the day).

We decorated the tables with confetti, lumineries, and paper bunnies. Then our masterful chefs came up with a wonderful selection of food; such as, fruit, pastries, muffins, croissants, eggs, quiche, sausage, bacon, waffles, and more. It really was wonderful and there was plenty of food for everyone. After we sat and ate while enjoying each other’s company, we decided it was time to send the kids out into the courtyard on an Easter egg hunt.

The kiddos did an excellent job finding all the eggs and enjoying the treasures that they found. 

Thank you to everyone who made our event a success today!

Whimsical, Whacky, Seussical Clapping

This is the second year in a row that we have celebrated Dr. Seuss’s birthday. He would have turned 101 this year, and last year was the big centennial, with everyone jumping on the bandwagon to celebrate all things Dr. Seuss…this year, we might have been one of the few, but we still had a GREAT time celebrating this wonderful man and his cherished children’s stories.

Our play is really quite a bit of fun. We treat it more like it’s an award show, and in between getting awards, our characters put on little skits from each of their respective stories. We, of course, had the Cat in the Hat along with Thing 1 and Thing 2 who caused a raucous amount of fun. Horton and the Mayor of Who-ville were there and they taught us that people are people no matter how small. The Lorax, our favorite environmentalist, and the Grinch, who likes to pretend like he doesn’t care about anybody or anything, went around and met some of the audience. And, of course, the characters from Green Eggs and Ham taught us that sometimes we need to try something new.

It was fun as we celebrated the characters who have taught us and others so many morals to guide our life. If we’re lucky, next year we will be able to have some new characters added to the play such as Sneetches and maybe a scene from the Butter Battle Book (because in this writer’s opinion…it’s the best Dr. Seuss book, however, most people are completely unaware of it!) We hope you enjoy the photos from this event…also, let us know if you have a favorite Seuss book that you would like to see us re-enact!

Amazing Families and a Grateful Community

We want to take a few minutes to say thank you to our amazing families.  Here at Juniper Village at Louisville, we strive for excellence in all that we do. We truly want to set the bar for how a Memory Care Community should be run. For us, this isn’t just a job, it’s our livelihood, and because of that we say thank you to our friends and families who make it possible to do the work we love.

We have recently received a letter from a family expressing their gratitude for the love and care that their family member received here, and we thought it was worthwhile to share it with everyone else. Thank you for noticing the work that we do. Even if it goes unnoticed, we will continue to work diligently in caring for the residents who live here with us, because we are truly passionate about what we do!

Mardi Gras Hoo-haw

There’s something about Fat Tuesday that seems to have some appeal to many people. We’re not talking about going down to New Orleans and getting wild. We’re simply talking about the fact that this is one holiday in which indulgences are encouraged (and, frankly, in our opinion, every holiday encourages indulgence, but this one…well indulgences are the true essence of what Mardi Gras is all about). Now, we haven’t studied Mardi Gras in depth…the French name suggests that it should in fact be French, and in America, we equate that with New Orleans and Fried Food…so as such, how else could we celebrate Mardi Gras than by having Fried Food, candy, and the likes.

So, we broke out the beignets (thanks to a local French Restaurant that prepares them) and then had some other fatty delicious food. We stopped along the way to take some pictures in front of our Mardi Gras display; and, in our opinion, we celebrated Mardi Gras the correct way. Of course, we also handed out beads…because frankly they’re shiny and lovely, although there were no prerequisites required to have such beads…it simply was a party favor!

Please join us for our events, we always make sure that we have a good time, and everyone is welcome!

National Pancake Day Celebration, Yes Please!!!

We focus a lot on our residents and put a lot of effort into making sure that there are always fun events for them to attend. One of the things that we don’t blog nearly often enough about is our staff…and to be honest, we have the best staff around. They work hard and truly provide the best care possible for the residents who live here, and that is praise worthy in and of itself.  And, to be honest, we celebrate them often, but we don’t always remember to get our camera out as those celebrations are not always as photo worthy. This year, 2014, we will work harder to post more often about our staff.

So, with that in mind, every month we have at least one big celebration…this month we chose National Pancake Day…because who doesn’t love pancakes! (Or at least that’s what we were thinking when we were planning this event). Of course, it’s never limited to just the staff, we often make sure vendors and residents celebrate with us for any and all of these events.

Our chef made the pancake mix, the leadership team cooked them up, we had a toppings bar, and the staff came, they saw…and devoured. It was a lot of fun, and we always would encourage you to join us for these events, the more the merrier! Join us next month when we celebrate with the staff again…naturally, we will be celebrating St. Patricks Day all day long with cheesy themed food to eat…and of course pinches for anyone not wearing green (thank goodness our Juniper Polo shirts are green!)

Art Walk and Talk

If you were fortunate enough to come to our art show you were able to get a glimpse and be pulled into our residents world- seeing glimpses of who they were, but more importantly, who they still are! It always amazes us at how incredibly talented our residents are with painting, so we host this event annually to show off their amazing skills and brag about the wonderful artwork that they’ve been able to create. We filled up a long hallway with the collection as well as a small room. The Leadership Team displayed their artwork that they created at a previous event, the Art Therapy one hosted earlier in the month to prepare us for the Art Show.

The artwork displayed at our art show is something that is created via the Alzheimer’s Association’s Memories in the Making Classes which we host regularly at our buildings. If you’re interested in learning more about what other types of therapies and activities that we provide here, we would welcome you to call or come by any time. We are proud of the programs that we have in place, and even more proud of the fact that our residents are able to enjoy them thoroughly.

Our next educational event is scheduled in March; we will be hosting the Alzheimer’s Association who will be here on the 11^th from 1:00PM to 3:00PM. We ask for an RSVP as space is limited. Please call us at 303.665.3722